Field of the Invention:
The present invention relates to a bearing unit for a conveying installation for the transport of goods by way of a conveyor belt, which is guided at the two ends of the installation by deflection drums and which is fastened to the underside of carrying beams oriented transversely with respect to the direction of movement of the conveyor belt and located at a distance from one another in the direction of movement of the conveyor belt. Carrying rollers are provided in each case at the two ends of the carrying beams which are mounted on bearing journals and which roll along two pairs of carrying ropes or carrying rails of the conveying installation which are assigned to the forward and to the return strand of the conveyor belt. The bearing bolt of the respective bearing unit is designed with an extension which is fastened releasably to the assigned end of the carrying beam.
In conveying installations of this type, which are known, for example, from my earlier, commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 6,935,490 B2 and its counterpart European published patent application EP 1 452 466 A1, the carrying beams are designed on their end faces with bores, into which a bolt-shaped extension projecting from the bearing journal of the bearing unit can be inserted and is fastened to the carrying beam by means of screw bolts. Insofar as there is the need to exchange a bearing unit, the screw bolts have to be removed and the extension projecting from the bearing journal has to be drawn out of the bore provided in the carrying beam.
However, this known fastening of the bearing units to the carrying beams does not conform to requirements since the bolt-like extensions, inserted into the carrying beams, of the bearing journals, or the screw bolts, are subject to pronounced corrosions, and therefore difficulties may arise in releasing the fastenings present between the carrying beams and the extensions, so that the bearing units can be removed from the carrying beams and replaced by new bearing units.